Things that improve model ship building

Hi fellows, just a short post to summarize the things I learned while building the Tsesarevich and some other ships before (see "The Shipyard" page above for more). I can say I've come a long way since building my first cheapo pre-dreadnought, but I sincerely hope that my budget modeling exploits will help some.

My next project would involve WW1-era large scale dreadnoughts similar to my earlier 1/600 scale models. I can already announce that the August hobby project is SMS Viribus Unitis, and USS Wyoming may be coming for September. 

Blueprints and reference images

Fortunately we have the internet and if we search for a ship or her sisters, a million images pop up, including large blueprints. Here's a trick I learned building Tsesarevich: print the image scaled to the desired size multiple times, and then you can use it to cut out templates for the platforms, turrets etc.

The best source I found for the Thegethoff-class dreadnoughts is viribusunitis.ca, it has a lot of detailed digital images and blueprints as well.

Building tools

I will need some tweezers, a pin vice, a bunch of clamps and a small set of drawers to keep building materials separated. I'll need a lot of sandpaper, I can make sanding bars out of wooden blocks or round objects like mugs and plastic tubes for hollow grinding.

Materials

One may wish to purchase some copper tubes and whatnot, but the basic things are more important. 

• Office stuff: different size paper clips and staples for barrels, cranes etc. These are stainless steel and have quite long straight pieces, but may also be bent or hammered to shape.
• Broom and brush bristles: these are made of sturdy plastic and can be bought in various sizes. They can be used to build masts, smaller guns and so on.
• Kebab sticks and toothpicks: Make sure you get the ones made of compressed bamboo. They split along nice even lines and may be used for various things.
• Balsa wood: the universal building material. Takes sanding well but thinner ones may split along the grain.
• Washers: for turret rings and such. Small coins may be used instead if you find the right diameter.

Finish

I'll place a 1mm plasticard sheet at the bottom of the ships so they slide better and the plasticard would protect the balsa wood as well. 

On the subject of balsa wood, it can become quite grainy, especially after the first few wet layers of paint. Earlier I tried coating it in many layers of PVA, which worked quite well, but I'll use a wood filler and fine grit sandpaper instead as PVA takes too long to completely dry.

I'm thinking about adding some sort of railing to the deck, but more importantly, adding crew - computer games I've played with make ships seem like some sort of automatons without any crew on deck or on the brigde, and that's something I would not like to reproduce, even on wargaming models.

Acrylic paint sticks to wood really well, so a protective coat is optional, I may use some cheap matte varnish from the local hobby shop.